Stock Market efficiency & Company valuation Essay

Stock Market efficiency & Company valuation - Essay Example A fundamental feature of this analysis is the assessments on Majestic Wine plc, which is the foremost mixed case wine retailer in the UK. The company is quoted on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange, which aims to assist companies that are operating on a smaller scale in meeting their requirements of capital for the purposes of expansion (London Stock Exchange 2013a). The categories of analysis for Majestic Wine plc are based on a range of distinct evaluations, which shall assess the share price movements and information flows to the market for the company and also conduct a comprehensive appraisal of the market price of the company’s shares, in accordance with the value assessments methods that are understood to be standard procedures in company valuation. The Significance of the Efficient-Market Hypothesis (EMH) According to Buckle and Thompson (2004, p174) the practical significance of the hypothesis regarding efficient markets is a notion w hich cannot be ignored. The application of this hypothesis postulates that the stock market’s agreement with its observations can lead to a situation where predicting changes in share prices are no longer considered to be viable as the market prices are an exact representation of each and every data or information that is present (Buckle and Thompson, 2004, p174). The classifications of features that can assist in the development of a well-informed discussion regarding stock market efficiency are based on the categories of return predictability, event studies and private information. Buckle and Thompson (2004, p175) understand that assessing these concepts with respect to the London Stock Exchange can uncover whether its functioning is efficient or not. Theoretical Implications of EMH and the Random Walk Model Barnes (2012, p46) highlights the theoretical implications of stock market efficiency which is essentially a system where an informational efficient market is said to b e the cause of allocative efficiency. Accordingly, the basis of this efficiency is examined on three forms that were developed by Eugene Fama and were termed as weak, semi-strong and strong (Barnes 2012, p46). According to Barnes (2012, p46) the weak form is described as a situation in which any new information regarding a company is represented by movements in the new price on an immediate basis, henceforth; this notion follows the ideology which states that new share movements cannot be determined through movements in old share prices. Analysts term this phenomenon as the ‘random walk’. While, several examinations on UK Stock market have aimed to establish its efficiency, numerous competing literatures have uncovered evidences which invalidate these claims. Dimson and Mussavian (1998, p92; 2000, p9) understand that the findings of numerous studies which report the presence of anomalies is indicative of features which oppose the principal of market efficiency. Research es which have pointed towards the occurrences of such characteristics that are largely inconsistent with economic ideologies aim to comprehend the trends in pricing efficiency within stock markets. A piece of empirical evidence which represents the phenomenon of the ‘random walk’ and the presence of its corresponding concept which is known as the ‘weak-form efficiency’ with respect to t